As Adam finished assessing the changes to Evelyn and himself, the ship's control system suddenly beeped to alert him of something. He turned his gaze to a holographic map that displayed the surrounding 5 kilo-parsecs (~16,000 light years).
His senses could not reach far so he wanted to use the ship's sensors to see if there was anything noteworthy on his way home. He hoped that if there were any valuable resources on his way, he would be able to take it with him back home.
The ship was currently cruising at lightspeed when it detected a rather sizeable mass of precious minerals about 700 light years away. It was an asteroid. There were no other things caught by the sensors which meant it was free for the taking. Since it was not too much of a detour, Adam decided to go after it.
"AI, change course. We're heading straight for this asteroid."
[Affirmative. Initiating FTL Drive. Warping in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...]
The ship vanished into the deep stellar blackness as though bending space itself. It tunneled through at a speed faster than light and arrived just above the asteroid in ten minutes. The moment the ship exited the warp tunnel, Adam saw something that could only be described as turquoise.
It was huge rock of glimmering turquoise filled with crystalline deposits of a certain alien mineral. It was a unique mineral that seemed to emit faint signs of vitality. It was obviously not a living thing, but it somehow contained lifeforce. Adam decided to land the ship on the asteroid as it was large enough to hold a city while the ship was barely the size of five jets.
Adam left the ship to feel the minerals for himself. There was something fascinating about them that attracted him. Perhaps it was because he himself was a hybrid lifeform that he found the contradictory combination of life and an inorganic matter to be a beautiful thing. It was like turning an impossibility into possibility, something like him.
The vitality within these minerals, however, was not very potent. Or rather, he could sense that there many impurities in the mineral that caused it to contain less vitality than it potentially could. The mineral was starting to seem more and more like a battery for life, but he did not know how to extract the vitality within it.
Then again, he did not really need to extract it as he could just devour the mineral whole and obtain all of the benefits. It was just pure curiosity that led him to that thought. After all, this might be a good source of energy for a civilisation as well.
He was already imagining a restructured human civilisation based on hybrid technology. Their technology would no longer simply rely on electricity, but even their vitality. They would not necessarily die from consuming vitality anyway as long as it was a controlled minimum consumption which can be restored through such minerals.
In fact, they could just use the minerals themselves to power their technology. He himself would likely be able to create these minerals endlessly as his vitality comes directly from his core which was now strong enough to literally power a star.
Adam quickly began devouring the asteroid with this in mind. He started from the sides, working his way to the central part where he landed his ship. As he devoured the asteroid, he could feel his body growing stronger and bursting with vitality. His core was also reacting to this change by supplying more power and it was only now that Adam realised that he had not being operating at full capacity.
All this time, because he did not know what his body was capable of, he had been using the bare minimum of power that his core could provide him. The only times he actually used more power was during evolutions when his body and core were being refined.
Devouring this mineral had somehow granted him a keener sense for his body, giving him better understanding on how to move it to produce the best possible result while maximising the power from his core with even greater efficiency. In short, he was learning about life in the most tangible sense.
"It's funny that I'm improving control over my body when I still don't know how strong I am."
Adam chuckled before soon regretting his words. His expression became stern as he looked up. He had just sensed a fluctuation in space which soon proved real.
Exiting a warp tunnel was a rather bulky ship a fraction smaller than his own. It was of a rusted iron colour that did not lessen its intimidating appearance. On one side of the ship was an emblem that depicted fifty stars surrounding a silver tower. As Adam observed them and deliberated on what to do, a voice rang out from the bulky ship.
"Sir, you have trespassed on Company property. We will need you to get off the asteroid and come with us for questioning."